Lesson: Elijah Prays for Rain (1 Kings 17:1-6) and Water Day Fun

Written by Felicia Mollohan - Updated April 28, 2016

Water Day is always a great time for all involved. It seems like it would be overwhelming and expensive to plan, but it really isn’t. It just needs to involve kids and water…that’s it, really. I like to have a plan, though, so that we can keep the kids moving and they don’t have time to think of things to keep themselves busy. We had it early enough in the morning so that we wouldn’t have the kids out during the hottest part of the day. We also had lunch provided by the local school’s free lunch program. They delivered the lunches to our church because we let them know that morning how many we have. It is a huge blessing for us and they like to do it because it helps their program.

Water Day is just to be a simple time for the kids to get together, bring their friends, get cooled off by getting wet, and hearing about how great our God is.

Games:
Our games were simple and inexpensive. We had some of the supplies already at the church and the others I got at the Dollar Tree and Walmart. The games are as follows:

Swim Towel “Volleyball” with Beach Balls: 2 beach balls & 2 teams… each team has to hold corners of a towel and “volley” the beach ball back and forth

Water Balloon Toss: any water day HAS to have a water balloon toss

Pass the Water with Cups: Line the kids up and each kid gets a cup.

Fill the first kid’s cup with water. They have to pour the water over their head and try to hit the next kid’s cup.

Water Balloon Baseball: Toss a water balloon to a kid with a plastic bat and have them hit the balloon

Human Bubble: Fill a kiddie pool with bubble solution. Place a hula hoop in the pool. Have a child stand in the middle of the hula hoop. Have 2 helpers gently pull up the hula hoop and a bubble will surround them

Colored Water Bottle Bowling with Beach Ball: Put food coloring in bottles of water and bowl with a beach ball.

Water Balloon Launcher: “Shoot” water balloons at the kids.

Water Limbo: Spray the hose out as the “stick” and have the kids do the limbo

Bucket of Water Transfer: 4 buckets, 2 sponges, & 2 teams – Fill 1 bucket for each team. The kids have to use the sponge to transfer the water from 1 bucket to the other.

Our Schedule:
Our schedule is flexible. I like to have an idea of how the morning will run, but I let the kids dictate how it’s going to go. If they are having a good time with one of the games, we will continue it. But, make sure not to keep on one thing too long and then lose their attention. That will lead to trouble. Keep the morning light, but flowing. Before we start our games, I like to go over the rules for the day. There aren’t any winners or losers. We will encourage everyone playing. We will continue to have a positive attitude about the games and everything that has been planned. We will be kind to everyone. I stress that the reason to be here is to have fun.

Did you guys have fun today? (Wait for responses) What was your favorite part of the morning? (Ask for responses) I’m glad you all had fun this morning! We were able to play with a lot of water today. Can you imagine not having water to play with? What about no water to take a shower (thought some of you would probably like that)? But it would probably get a little stinky, don’t you think? What about not having water to drink? We kind of take water for granted, don’t we? We can usually go to the faucet and fill a cup of water to drink. What if you couldn’t do that?

Well, in the Bible, it tells us of a man called Elijah. I’m going to read you the story about him and a lack of water.

Read 1 Kings 17:1-6 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” The word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.” So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.

Elijah went to King Ahab and told him that there wasn’t going to be any rain until he prays for it again. God told him to tell that to the king because the king had been doing bad things and worshipping fake gods instead of the One True God. God was taking away the water. But, God took care of Elijah. He sent him to a brook to get water and He sent bread and meat by ravens! Ravens! Can you imagine having ravens bring you your food? Crazy, right? But, God took care of Elijah because he had been faithful to him. Let’s see how long there had been no rain.

Read James 5:17-18 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

So there was no rain for 3 1/2 years! That’s a long time to not have rain. Then Elijah prayed for rain again and it did.

We take water for granted and just expect it to be there. That’s not what happened in the Bible. Our God is an awesome God because He can stop and start the rain when He wants to. Let’s remember to be grateful for our water and let’s remember what an awesome God that we have and that He takes such good care of us.

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Tony Kummer (Editor) reviewed & updated this page on : April 28, 2016 at 12:01 am. Every free resource on our website is peer reviewed by our readers, simply leave a comment on any post suggest an update. You can also contact us directly via Tony@Ministry-To-Children.com